Sales, often considered the lifeblood of any business, is a nuanced profession that requires a unique blend of skills, psychology, and tenacity. Over the years, many renowned figures from various domains have shared their insights and wisdom on sales, inspiring sales professionals and enthusiasts alike. Here’s a compilation of 200 notable quotes that shed light on the art and science of sales:
- “To build a long-term, successful enterprise, when you don’t close a sale, open a relationship.” – Patricia Fripp
- “You don’t close a sale; you open a relationship if you want to build a long-term, successful enterprise.” – Patricia Fripp
- “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” – Thomas Edison
- “Selling is essentially a transfer of feelings.” – Zig Ziglar
- “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” – Robert Collier
- “Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesman, not the attitude of the prospect.” – W. Clement Stone
- “People don’t buy for logical reasons. They buy for emotional reasons.” – Zig Ziglar
- “The best way to sell something: don’t sell anything. Earn the awareness, respect, and trust of those who might buy.” – Rand Fishkin
- “Keep yourself positive, cheerful, and goal-oriented. Sales success is 80% attitude and only 20% aptitude.” – Brian Tracy
- “Your competition is everything else your prospect could conceivably spend their money on.” – Don Cooper
- “Sales success comes after you stretch yourself past your limits on a daily basis.” – Omar Periu
- “The most unprofitable item ever manufactured is an excuse.” – John Mason
- “There’s no lotion or potion that will make sales faster and easier for you – unless your potion is hard work.” – Jeffery Gitomer
- “Become the person who would attract the results you seek.” – Jim Cathcart
- “Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don’t recognize them.” – Ann Landers
- “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” – Vince Lombardi
- “The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” – Thomas Paine
- “Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.” – Sam Levenson
- “Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” – Tony Robbins
- “Value the relationship more than making your quota.” – Jeffrey Gitomer
- “Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.” – Seth Godin
- “You can’t sell anything if you can’t tell anything.” – Beth Comstock
- “Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesman – not the attitude of the prospect.” – W. Clement Stone
- “There is no such thing as a no-sale call. A sale is made on every call you make. Either you sell the client some stock, or he sells you a reason he can’t.” – Benjamin Franklin
- “Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust.” – Zig Ziglar
- “Begin by always expecting good things to happen.” – Tom Hopkins
- “The best sales questions have your expertise wrapped into them.” – Jill Konrath
- “Confidence and enthusiasm are the greatest sales producers in any kind of economy.” – O. B. Smith
- “Most people think ‘selling’ is the same as ‘talking’. But the most effective salespeople know that listening is the most important part of their job.” – Roy Bartell
- “Keep your sales pipeline full by prospecting continuously. Always have more people to see than you have time to see them.” – Brian Tracy
- “Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, ‘Make me feel important.’ Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life.” – Mary Kay Ash
- “Prospecting – Find the man with the problem.” – Ben Friedman
- “The way you position yourself at the beginning of a relationship has profound impact on where you end up.” – Ron Karr
- “In sales, a referral is the key to the door of resistance.” – Bo Bennett
- “One of the best predictors of ultimate success … isn’t natural talent or even industry expertise, but how you explain your failures and rejections.” – Daniel H. Pink
- “The best salespeople know that their expertise can become their enemy in selling. At the moment they are tempted to tell the buyer what ‘he needs to do,’ they instead offer a story about a peer of the buyer.” – Mike Bosworth
- “Make a customer, not a sale.” – Katherine Barchetti
- “You will attract way more buyers if you are offering to teach them something of value to them than you will ever attract by simply trying to sell them your product or service.” – Chet Holmes
- “The questions you ask are more important than the things you could ever say.” – Thomas Freese
- “In a world where you can be anything, be yourself.” – Etta Turner
- “For every sale you miss because you’re too enthusiastic, you will miss a hundred because you’re not enthusiastic enough.” – Zig Ziglar
- “Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business.” – Zig Ziglar
- “You don’t close a sale; you open a relationship if you want to build a long-term, successful enterprise.” – Patricia Fripp
- “Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.” – Stephen R. Covey
- “Timid salesmen have skinny kids.” – Zig Ziglar
- “You don’t need a big close as many sales reps believe. You risk losing your customer when you save all the good stuff for the end. Keep the customer actively involved throughout your presentation, and watch your results improve.” – Harvey Mackay
- “How you sell matters. What your process is matters. But how your customers feel when they engage with you matters more.” – Tiffani Bova
- “If you are not taking care of your customer, your competitor will.” – Bob Hooey
- “Customers will want to talk to you if they believe you can solve their problems.” – Jeffrey Gitomer
- “If you work just for money, you’ll never make it, but if you love what you’re doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours.” – Ray Kroc
- “People buy from people they trust and like.” – Barbara Corcoran
- “There is no sale without the story; no knockout without the setup.” – Gary Vaynerchuk
- “Your first sale is always to yourself.” – Rich Litvin
- “Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later.” – Og Mandino
- “When reps take the role of a curious student rather than an informed expert, buyers are much more inclined to engage.” – Deb Calvert
- “Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out.” – Robert Collier
- “The key is not to call the decision maker. The key is to have the decision maker call you.” – Jeffrey Gitomer
- “The best salespeople wonder what it would be like to be in the other person’s shoes. They know they can’t play that role unless they continually strive to train themselves.” – John H. Patterson
- “To succeed in sales, simply talk to lots of people every day. And here’s what’s exciting – there are lots of people!” – Jim Rohn
- “Selling is not a pushy, winner-takes-all, macho act. It is an empathy-led, process-driven, and knowledge-intensive discipline. Because, in the end, people buy from people.” – Subroto Bagchi
- “The new reality is that salespeople must become trusted advisors and knowledgeable consultants to succeed.” – Marc Benioff
- “Every email is an opportunity to test a different benefit or angle.” – Heather Morgan
- “The buyer is always tuned into station WIIFM — ‘What’s In It For Me?'” – Patricia Fripp
- “To sell well is to convince someone else to part with resources—not to deprive that person, but to leave him better off in the end.” – Daniel H. Pink
- “Approach each customer with the idea of helping him or her solve a problem or achieve a goal, not of selling a product or service.” – Brian Tracy
- “The best way to sell yourself to others is first to sell the others to yourself.” – Napoleon Hill
- “Nobody likes to be sold to, but everybody likes to buy.” – Earl Taylor
- “No matter what you sell, every day you’re in a different situation. Sales is a constant test. It’s a never-ending school. You don’t graduate.” – Joe Girard
- “Learn to love objections; every time you get one, and you handle it well, you are one step closer to the sale.” – Tom Hopkins
- “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” – Bill Gates
- “Find out what your customer really wants and see if you can get it to them. Then they become the path of least resistance.” – Andy Paul
- “Sales is not about selling anymore, but about building trust and educating.” – Siva Devaki
- “Keep yourself positive, cheerful and goal-oriented. Sales success is 80% attitude and only 20% aptitude.” – Brian Tracy
- “You can determine the strength of a business over time by the amount of agony they go through in raising prices.” – Warren Buffett
- “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” – Mahatma Gandhi
- “Don’t sell life insurance. Sell what life insurance can do.” – Ben Feldman
- “Sales can never be done with a great spirit of fun. Selling is a very serious and a very sad business.” – Joe Girard
- “Treat objections as requests for further information.” – Brian Tracy
- “Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesman – not the attitude of the prospect.” – W. Clement Stone
- “A goal is a dream with a deadline.” – Napoleon Hill
- “Excellence is not a skill. It’s an attitude.” – Ralph Marston
- “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky
- “The best salespeople are great listeners—that’s how you find out what the buyer wants.” – Dave Thomas
- “Selling is something we do for our clients – not to our clients.” – Zig Ziglar
- “You can’t wait for customers to come to you. You have to figure out where they are, go there, and drag them back to your store.” – Paul Graham
- “The future of communicating with customers rests in engaging with them through every possible channel: phone, e-mail, chat, Web, and social networks. Customers are discussing a company’s products and brand in real time. Companies need to join the conversation.” – Marc Benioff
- “If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.” – Zig Ziglar
- “Great salespeople are relationship builders who provide value and help their customers win.” – Jeffrey Gitomer
- “When you start with what’s at stake for the buyer, you earn the right to their attention.” – Jake Sorofman
- “Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” – John D. Rockefeller
- “What differentiates sellers today is their ability to bring fresh ideas.” – Jill Konrath
- “Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily, even if you had no title or position.” – Brian Tracy
- “You don’t need a big close as many sales reps believe. You risk losing your customer when you save all the good stuff for the end. Keep the customer actively involved throughout your presentation, and watch your results improve.” – Harvey Mackay
- “It’s not about having the right opportunities. It’s about handling the opportunities right.” – Mark Hunter
- “If you’re not taking care of your customer, your competitor will.” – Bob Hooey
- “People don’t ask for facts in making up their minds. They would rather have one good, soul-satisfying emotion than a dozen facts.” – Robert Keith Leavitt
- “I never see failure as failure, but only as the game I must play and win.” – Tom Hopkins
- “Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don’t recognize them.” – Ann Landers
- “Keep yourself positive, cheerful, and goal-oriented. Sales success is 80% attitude and only 20% aptitude.” – Brian Tracy
- “It’s not about being the best. It’s about being better than you were yesterday.”
- “In sales, it’s not what you say; it’s how they perceive what you say.” – Jeffrey Gitomer
- “Persistence trumps talent.” – Howard Schultz
- “People don’t buy goods and services. They buy relations, stories, and magic.” – Seth Godin
- “The more risks you allow yourself to take, the better salesman you will become.” – Paul Arden
- “There’s no prize for second place in sales. It’s win or nothing. The masters know this and strive for – they fight for – that winning edge.” – Jeffrey Gitomer
- “People buy emotionally, and they justify their decisions intellectually.” – David Sandler
- “Sales are the transfer of enthusiasm from one person to another.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” – Pablo Picasso
- “Chase the vision, not the money; the money will end up following you.” – Tony Hsieh
- “No sale is really complete until the product is worn out and the customer is satisfied.” – L.L. Bean
- “Ninety percent of selling is conviction, and 10 percent is persuasion.” – Shiv Khera
- “Your competition is not other people but the time you kill, the ill-will you create, the knowledge you neglect to learn, the connections you fail to build, the health you sacrifice along the path, your inability to generate ideas, the people around you who don’t support and love your efforts, and whatever god you curse for your bad luck.” – James Altucher
- “Sales is not about selling anymore, but about building trust and educating.” – Siva Devaki
- “Don’t celebrate closing a sale, celebrate opening a relationship.” – Patricia Fripp
- “A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all.” – Michael LeBoeuf
- “Either you’re going to tell stories that spread, or you will become irrelevant.” – Seth Godin
- “Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, ‘Make me feel important.’ Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life.” – Mary Kay Ash
- “You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” – Zig Ziglar
- “A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery
- “Great companies are built in the office, with hard work put in by a team.” – Emily Chang
- “You have to drop your sales mentality and start working with your prospects as if they’ve already hired you.” – Jill Konrath
- “Stop selling. Start helping.” – Zig Ziglar
- “The most valuable commodity I know of is information.” – Gordon Gekko
- “On any given Monday, I am one sale closer and one idea away from being a millionaire.” – Larry D. Turner
- “You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.” – Walt Disney
- “Dream big, start small, act now.” – Robin Sharma
- “When you focus on problems, you’ll have more problems. When you focus on possibilities, you’ll have more opportunities.” – Zig Ziglar
- “Sales success comes after you stretch yourself past your limits on a daily basis.” – Omar Periu
- “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” – Dale Carnegie
- “It’s not about the sale; it’s about the relationship.” – Unknown
- “Today is always the most productive day of your week.” – Mark Hunter
- “It’s not about having the right opportunities. It’s about handling the opportunities right.” – Mark Hunter
- “Ask open-ended questions and listen. Sales will come after the relationship is built.” – Unknown
- “The sale begins when the customer says yes.” – Harvey Mackay
- “Don’t expect to be motivated every day to get out there and make things happen. You won’t be. Don’t count on motivation. Count on discipline.” – Jocko Willink
- “Excellence is not being the best; it is doing your best.” – Zig Ziglar
- “Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.” – Zig Ziglar
- “Fail often so you can succeed sooner.” – Tom Kelley
- “The harder you work, the luckier you get.” – Mike Adenuga
- “You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.” – Henry Ford
- “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” – Milton Berle
- “Success seems to be connected to action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes but they don’t quit.” – Conrad Hilton
- “There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” – Beverly Sills
- “Wanting something is not enough. You must hunger for it. Your motivation must be absolutely compelling in order to overcome the obstacles that will invariably come your way.” – Les Brown
- “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziglar
- “Opportunities multiply as they are seized.” – Sun Tzu
- “The most difficult sale is always to yourself.” – Unknown
- “There’s no lotion or potion that will make sales faster and easier for you – unless your potion is hard work.” – Jeffery Gitomer
- “The only limitations are the ones we put on ourselves.” – Gloria Mayfield Banks
- “Believe in yourself, your product, and the value you bring to the table.” – Unknown
- “Your competition is not other people but the time you kill, the ill will you create, the knowledge you neglect to learn, the connections you fail to build, the health you sacrifice along the path, your inability to generate ideas, the people around you who don’t support and love your efforts, and whatever god you curse for your bad luck.” – James Altucher
- “Obstacles can’t stop you. Problems can’t stop you. Most of all, other people can’t stop you. Only you can stop you.” – Jeffrey Gitomer
- “To earn more, you must learn more.” – Brian Tracy
- “For every sale you miss because you were too enthusiastic, you will miss a hundred because you were not enthusiastic enough.” – Zig Ziglar
- “Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better.” – Jim Rohn
- “Sales are the transfer of enthusiasm.” – Zig Ziglar
- “Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what comes.” – Zig Ziglar
- “Your life can only get better when you do. Do something every day to improve your key skill areas.” – Brian Tracy
- “If you work just for money, you’ll never make it. But if you love what you’re doing and always put the customer first, success will be yours.” – Ray Kroc
- “We herd sheep, we drive cattle, we lead people. Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.” – General George Patton
- “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou
- “If you don’t believe in what you’re selling, neither will your prospect.” – Frank Bettger
- “Assume the sale.” – Unknown
- “Remember, every ‘no’ gets you closer to a ‘yes’.” – Chris Dixon
- “Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesman – not the attitude of the prospect.” – W. Clement Stone
- “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” – Steve Jobs
- “If people like you they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you they’ll do business with you.” – Zig Ziglar
- “Become one of those people who cannot do tomorrow what you can do today.” – Jeffrey Gitomer
- “The difference between try and triumph is just a little umph!” – Marvin Phillips
- “There’s no prize for second place in sales. It’s win or nothing. The masters know this and strive for – they fight for – that winning edge.” – Jeffrey Gitomer
- “The top salespeople are listeners, problem solvers, and incredibly empathetic without ever getting too attached.” – Shane Barker
- “Don’t count the things you do, do the things that count.” – Zig Ziglar
- “Salespeople are the economy. Without salespeople, the wheels stop.” – Anthony Iannarino
- “Good listeners often make the most sales.” – Harvey Mackay
- “Think twice before burdening a friend with a secret.” – Marlene Dietrich
- “It’s not your customer’s job to remember you. It’s your obligation and responsibility to make sure they don’t have the chance to forget you.” – Patricia Fripp
- “You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” – Zig Ziglar
- “The sales department isn’t the whole company, but the whole company better be the sales department.” – Philip Kotler
- “When we sell our own products, we get what we want. When we sell other people’s products (affiliate marketing), we get what they want.” – Pat Flynn
- “A satisfied customer is the best strategy of all.” – Michael LeBoeuf
- “By getting your customers to agree with you in small steps along the way, you have a better chance of being able to sell to them.” – Brian Tracy
- “Stop saying ‘later.’ You WON’T do it later. Do it or decide not to do it.” – Chris Brogan
- “The most important part of salesmanship is understanding what the buyer’s needs are.” – Liam Neeson
- “In a world inundated with sales messages, you must make sure your message is both clear and relevant.” – Jill Konrath
- “Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesman, not the attitude of the prospect.” – William Clement Stone
- “People inherently like to buy, but they don’t like to be sold to. So make them want to buy, and don’t try to sell them.” – Unknown
- “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt
- “A salesperson’s ethics and values contribute more to sales success than do techniques or strategies.” – Ron Willingham
- “The most powerful element in advertising is the truth.” – Bill Bernbach
- “The golden rule for every salesperson is this: Put yourself in your customer’s place.” – Orison Swett Marden
- “The best sales tool you’ll ever have is a track record of success.” – Scott Stratten
- “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Mark Twain
- “Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying basic fundamentals.” – Jim Rohn
- “Sales success comes from the right balance of quality and quantity.” – Shari Levitin
- “Dream big, start small, act now.” – Robin Sharma
- “If you don’t give attention to your clients, someone else will.” – Ron Kaufman
- “Quality performance starts with a positive attitude.” – Jeffrey Gitomer
- “Your job is to show people the inevitable success of your idea.” – Seth Godin
- “Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” – Warren Buffett
- “The way to get things done is not to mind who gets the credit for doing them.” – Benjamin Jowett